The present invention relates to a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet. More particularly, it relates to a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet having a dye-receptive layer of which the texture is similar to that of so-called "plain paper."
A thermal transfer sheet comprising a substrate sheet and a dye layer provided on one surface of the substrate sheet has hitherto been used in an output printer for computers and word processors by a thermal sublimation dye transfer system. This thermal transfer sheet comprises a heat-resisting substrate sheet and a dye layer formed by coating an ink comprising a mixture of a binder with a sublimable dye on the substrate sheet and drying the resultant coating. Beat is applied to the thermal transfer sheet from the back surface thereof to transfer a number of color dots of three or four colors to a material on which an image is to be transferred, thereby forming a full color image. Since the colorant used is a dye, the image thus formed has excellent sharpness and transparency and high reproduction and gradation of intermediate colors, which enables a high-quality image comparable to a conventional full color photographic image to be formed.
Such a high-quality image, however, cannot be formed on a transfer material undyable with a dye, such as plain paper. In order to solve this problem, a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet comprising a substrate sheet and a dye-receptive layer previously formed on the substrate sheet has been used in the art.
Conventional thermal transfer image-receiving sheets are generally thick and have a dye-receptive layer of which the surface has a texture close to the so-called "photographic paper" rich in gloss, so that in some sense they can be said to give an impression of high grade.
However, in the so-called "applications in office," the gloss of the surface of the dye-receptive layer and the hard texture of the sheet per se give a poor image to users. In order to overcome this problem, a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet, particularly one which has a surface having a texture close to plain paper and can be handled like copying paper, has been desired in the art.